Data from: The role of glacial‐interglacial climate change in shaping the genetic structure of eastern subterranean termites in the southern Appalachian Mountains, USA

The eastern subterranean termite, Reticulitermes flavipes, currently
inhabits previously glaciated regions of the northeastern U.S., as well as
the unglaciated southern Appalachian Mountains and surrounding areas. We
hypothesized that Pleistocene climatic fluctuations have influenced the
distribution of R. flavipes, and thus the evolutionary history of the
species. We estimated contemporary and historical geographic distributions
of R. flavipes by constructing Species Distribution Models (SDM). We also
inferred the evolutionary and demographic history of the species using
mitochondrial (cytochrome oxidase I and II) and nuclear
(endo‐beta‐1,4‐glucanase) DNA sequence data. To do this, genetic
populations were delineated using Bayesian spatial‐genetic clustering,
competing hypotheses about population divergence were assessed using
approximate Bayesian computation (ABC), and changes in population size
were estimated using Bayesian skyline plots. SDMs identified areas in the
north with suitable habitat during the transition from the Last
Interglacial to the Last Glacial Maximum, as well as an expanding
distribution from the mid‐Holocene to the present. Genetic analyses
identified three geographically cohesive populations, corresponding with
northern, central, and southern portions of the study region. Based on ABC
analyses, divergence between the Northern and Southern populations was the
oldest, estimated to have occurred 64.80 thousand years ago (kya), which
corresponds with the timing of available habitat in the north. The Central
and Northern populations diverged in the mid‐Holocene, 8.63 kya, after
which the Central population continued to expand. Accordingly,
phylogeographic patterns of R. flavipes in the southern Appalachians
appear to have been strongly influenced by glacial‐interglacial climate
change.